Hair Care

What It's Really Like to Lose Your Hair in Your 20s

When she went completely bald at 26, it was other people's reactions that she struggled with the most

by Laura Zinger, as told to Emily Woodruff, Andrea Jordan | 2 COMMENTS

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My grandfather was the first to point out my baldness. Unlike most women, who begin to notice their hair loss in the form of a concerning number of hairs on their pillow when they wake up or a shower drain clogged with hair that's falling out faster than it's being replaced, I didn't realize I was going bald until a handstand game gave it away. At the back of my head underneath most of my hair was a bald spot. My grandfather recognized it as the beginning signs of alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes anywhere from a few patches of hair loss on the head to an entire loss of hair (everything -- including eyelashes and eyebrows) all over the body.

My grandfather was diagnosed with alopecia universalis at the age of 40, and I can't remember him ever having a single strand of hair anywhere on his body. I inherited the alopecia gene from him. I got that first bald spot at the age of 9, and was diagnosed with alopecia areata -- unlike my grandfather, my baldness was limited to patches on my head. And, after rubbing some prescribed steroid cream on it, it went away. I stayed bald-spot free for the next 17 years, but at 26 I noticed another bald spot creeping in.

Photo courtesy Laura Zinger

SEE NEXT PAGE: Bald at 26

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